• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.38-48
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• 1980

To evaluate Rhizobium meliloti BALSAC, a strain selected from Canada as an acid tolerant one, and ordinary lucerne inoculant in acid condition, lucerne (Medicago sativa L. cv. Wairau) was inoculated and/or pelleted in the laboratory, and grown for two months in an acid soil (Lismore silt loam, pH 5.4) with three levels of lime in the, glasshouse. The results of controlled (noninoculated), nitrogen fertilized, laboratorial and commercial inoculated seeds were compared to give the following conclusions: 1. There was no significant difference in the top and root dry matter yields between two Rhizobium strains. However, Balsac inoculant showed higher single nodule dry matter weight and relatively higher number of larger nodules than the ordinary inoculant. 2. Lime application increased dry matter yields of plants and nodules, and the number of nodules per pot and the increase of nodules on the lateral roots in both inoculants. Lime application also caused an evenly distribution of nodules on the root by showing an increase of nodules mainly on the lateral roots. 3. Fertilizer nitrogen without inoculant slightly increased the nodulation percentage, the nodule dry matter weight per nodule and the relative proportion of larger nodules. 4. Commercially inoculated and pelleted seed showed less consistent results. 5. Relatively larger variations in measuring nodule characteristics was discussed and concluded that extreme cares should be given to reduce the variation.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.290-303
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• 2003

Modern agriculture has been heavily dependent on chemical fertilizers to meet the food demands of ever increasing population. Progressive depletion of major plant nutrients in soil due to intensive cultivation practices has also necessitated the use of higher dose of chemical fertilizers particularly in soils where the organic matter content is very low. Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pressure on agriculturists to enhance per area crop yields has led to fast depletion of fossil fuel resources with concomitant increase in the prices of chemical fertilizers and also led to environmental pollution. Hence, the current trend throughout the world is to explore the possibility of using alternate nutrient sources or increasing the efficiency of chemical fertilizers by supplementing them with organic fertilizers and bioinoculants comprising largely microbes like, bacteria, fungi, algae etc to enhance nitrogen and phosphates in the soil thus creating a sustainable agricultural environment. Among the different microbial inoculants or biofertilizers, Azospirillum could be a potential candidate due to its non specific host root colonization. It had the capability to fix $N_2$ in wide pH regimes and even in presence of combined nitrogen. Azospirillum inoculation can increase the crop yield to 10-25% and substitute 25% of recommended doses of nitrogenous fertilizers. Apart from nitrogen fixation, Azospirillum is also involved in the root improvement, the activity which was attributed to an increase in the rate of water and mineral uptake by roots. The ability of Azospirillum to produce phytohormones was reported to enhance the root respiration rate, metabolism and root proliferation. They have also been reported to produce polyhydroxybutyrate, that can be used as a biodegradable thermosplastic. A lot of studies have addressed improvements in enhancing its efficiency to fix nitrogen fixation and hormone production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1873-1881
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• 2019

Objective: Information regarding the vitamin content of silage is limited. This study investigated the changes in the vitamin content of alfalfa and Chinese leymus silages with or without a lactic acid bacterial inoculant. Methods: Alfalfa at the early flowering stage and Chinese leymus at the full-bloom stage were harvested. The treatments for each forage type were control (deionized water only) and $1{\times}10^6$ colony-forming units Lactobacillus plantarum (LP)/g fresh matter. After 45 days of ensiling, all silages were sampled for evaluating the vitamin content, fermentation quality and chemical composition. Results: The LP inoculant decreased the pH value and ammonia nitrogen content of the alfalfa and Chinese leymus silages and significantly (p<0.05) increased the lactic acid, acetic acid concentrations and Flieg's points. Prior to ensiling, the levels of five B-group vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and pyridoxine) and ${\alpha}$-tocopherol in alfalfa were significantly (p<0.01) higher than those in Chinese leymus. Ensiling decreased the levels of the five B-group vitamins in both alfalfa and Chinese leymus while increasing the ${\alpha}$-tocopherol content of Chinese leymus. The thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid levels in the LP-treated silage were significantly (p<0.05) lower than those in the untreated silage for the alfalfa and Chinese leymus. The ${\alpha}$-tocopherol content in the LP-treated alfalfa silage was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that in the untreated alfalfa silage. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in pyridoxine content between the untreated and LP-treated silages for both forages. Conclusion: With or without LP inoculation, the levels of the five B-group vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and pyridoxine) in alfalfa and Chinese leymus decreased after 45 days of ensiling, while the ${\alpha}$-tocopherol content of Chinese leymus increased. The LP inoculant improved the fermentation quality of both the alfalfa and Chinese leymus silages but increased the thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid loss in the two forages after fermentation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2019

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of zinc-bearing palygorskite (Zn-Pal) on rumen fermentation by in vitro gas-production system. Methods: In trial, 90 incubators were evenly divided into five groups: control (0% Zn-Pal), treatment I (0.2% Zn-Pal), treatment II (0.4% Zn-Pal), treatment III (0.6% Zn-Pal), and treatment IV (0.8% Zn-Pal). The contents of zinc for treatments were 0, 49, 98, 147, 196 mg/kg, respectively. The main chemical composition and microstructure of Zn-Pal was investigated by X-ray diffraction. The physicochemical features were evaluated by Zeta potential analysis, cation-exchange capacity, ethylene blue absorption and specific surface area (the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method). In vitro gas production (GP) was recorded at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 60, and 72 h incubation. Incubation was stopped at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h and the inoculants were tested for pH, microbial protein yield (MCP), $NH_3-N$, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Results: The results showed that the GP in the treatment groups was not significantly different from the control groups (p>0.05). Compared to the control group, pH was higher at 24 h, 48 h (p<0.05), and 72 h (p<0.01) (range 6 to 7). The concentration of $NH_3-N$ in the three treatment groups was higher than in the control group at 24 h (p<0.01), meanwhile, it was lower at 48 h and 72 h (p<0.01), except in the treatment IV. The concentration of MCP in treatment I group was higher than in the control at 48 h (p<0.01). Compared with control, the LPS concentration in treatment III became lower at 12 h (p<0.05). Total VFAs in treatments were higher than in the control at 24 h, 48 h (p<0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that the addition of Zn-Pal can improve the rumen fermentation, especially when adding 0.2% Zn-Pal.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.165-170
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of different storage periods of lactic acid bacteria (LAB)-fermented low moisture fresh rice straw silage. The low moisture fresh rice straw sample was inculcated with LAB and stored for different storage periods such as 45, 90, and 365 days, respectively. The low moisture fresh rice straw (LMFRS) silage inoculated with LAB exhibited reduction in pH throughout the fermentation as compared with the control (P<0.05). The lactic acid content was increased at the late fermentation period (90 and 365 days, respectively) in LAB inoculated LMFRS silage as compared with the control (P<0.05). In contrast, the acetic acid and butyric acid concentrations were slightly reduced in the LAB inoculated LMFRS silage sample at 90 and 365 days fermentation, respectively. Meanwhile, the non-inoculated LMFRS silage showed higher amounts of acetic acid and butyric acid at an extended fermentation with low bacterial population as compared with the LAB inoculated LMFRS silage. However, lactic acid concentration was slightly high in the non-inoculated LMFRS silage at early 45 days fermentation. Additionally, the nutrient profile such as crude protein (CP), acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), and total digestibility nutrients (TDN) were not significantly different in control and LAB inculcated samples during all fermentation. Though, the microbial population was greater in the LAB inoculated LMFRS silage as compared with the control. However, the massive population was noted in the LAB inoculated LMFRS silage during all fermentation. It indicates that the inoculated LAB is the main reason for increasing fermentation quality in the sample through pH reduction by organic acids production. Overall results suggest that the LAB inoculums are the effective strain that could be a suitable for LMFRS silage fermentation at prolonged days.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.527-533
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• 2019

The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of three types of Chestnut Meals (CM) on chemical composition and rumen fermentation characteristics of the fermented diet. The inoculants consisted of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bacillus subtilis, and Sacaromyces cerevisiae and were applied to three different types of CM; Whole Chestnut (WC), endodermis (EN), and kernel (KE). All types of CMs were ensiled at $39^{\circ}C$ for 0, 1, 2, 4, or 6 days. After ensiling, the fermented CMs were sub-sampled for laboratory assays. On day six of fermentation, counts of the lactic acid-producing Bacillus subtilis, and yeast were higher (P<0.05) in WC than in the other CM types. On day four, KE had higher (P<0.05) crude protein content but lower (P<0.05) neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber contents than the other treatments. In terms of rumen digestibility, KE had the highest (P<0.05) in vitro digestibility of dry matter (IVDMD), neutral detergent fiber digestibility (IVNDFD), total volatile fatty acid (VFA), propionate, butyrate concentrations, and total gas volume, as well as the lowest (P<0.05) acetate concentration. On the other hand, EN had the highest (P<0.05) pH and ammonia-N concentration in the rumen. In the rumen, even though WC application produced the highest microbial count and fermentation characteristics, it did not have a beneficial effect on rumen digestibility. Therefore, this study concluded that application of KE could be recommended due to the observed improvements in IVDMD and IVNDFD.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.988-995
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• 2019

Objective: This study was conducted to estimate the temperature and microbial changes of corn silages during aerobic exposure. Methods: Kwangpyeongok (KW) and Pioneer 1543 (PI) corn hybrids were harvested at 29.7% of dry matter and chopped to 3 to 5 cm lengths. Homo (Lactobacillus plantarum; LP) or hetero (Lactobacillus buchneri; LB) fermentative inoculants at $1.2{\times}10^5$ colony forming unit/g of fresh forage was applied to the chopped corn forage which was then ensiled in quadruplicate with a $2{\times}2$ (hybrid${\times}$inoculant) treatment arrangement for 100 days. After the silo was opened, silage was sub-sampled for analysis of chemical compositions, in vitro digestibility, and fermentation indices. The fresh silage was continued to determine aerobic exposure qualities by recorded temperature and microbial changes. Results: The KW silages had higher (p<0.01) in vitro digestibilities of dry matter and neutral detergent fiber than those of PI silages. Silages applied with LB had higher (p<0.001) acetate concentration, but lower (p<0.01) lactate concentration and lactate to acetate ratio than those of LP silages. The interaction effect among hybrid and inoculant was detected in acetate production (p = 0.008), aerobic stability (p = 0.006), and lactic acid bacteria count (p = 0.048). The yeast was lower (p = 0.018) in LB silages than that in LP silages. During the aerobic exposure, PI silages showed higher (p<0.05) temperature and mold than KW silages, while LP silages had higher (p<0.05) lactic acid bacteria and yeast than LB silages. Conclusion: The results indicated that the changes of silage temperature during aerobic exposure seems mainly affected by mold growth, while applied LB only enhanced aerobic stability of PI silages.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.96-102
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• 2022

The present study investigated effects of microbial additives and silo density on chemical compositions, fermentation indices, and aerobic stability of whole crop rice (WCR) silage. The WCR ("Youngwoo") was harvested at 49.7% dry matter (DM), and ensiled into 500 kg bale silo with two different compaction pressures at 430 kgf (kilogram-force)/cm² (LOW) and 760 kgf/cm² (HIGH) densities. All WCR forage were applied distilled water (CON) or mixed inoculants (Lactobacillus brevis 5M2 and Lactobacillus buchneri 6M1) with 1:1 ratio at 1x105 colony forming unit/g (INO). The concentrations of DM, crude protein, ether extract, crude ash, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber of whole crop rice before ensiling were 49.7, 9.59, 2.85, 6.74, 39.7, and 21.9%, respectively. Microbial additives and silo density did not affect the chemical compositions of WCR silage (p>0.05). The INO silages had lower lactate (p<0.001), but higher propionate (p<0.001). The LOW silages had higher lactate (p=0.004). The INO silages had higher yeast count (p<0.001) and aerobic stability (p<0.001). However, microbial counts and aerobic stability were not affected by silo density. Therefore, this study concluded that fermentation quality of WCR silage improved by microbial additives, but no effects by silo density.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.155-161
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• 2022

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of isolated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on the quality of high moisture rye silage. Rye forage (Secale cereale L.) was harvested at the heading stage (27.3% of dry matter (DM)) and cut into approximately 3-5 cm lengths. Then, the forage divided into 4 treatments with different inoculants: 1) No additives (CON); 2) Lactobacillus brevis strain 100D8 at a 1.2 × 10⁵ colony-forming unit (cfu)/g of fresh forage (LBR); 3) Leuconostoc holzapfelii strain 5H4 at a 1.0 × 10⁵ cfu/g of fresh forage (LHO); and 4) Mixture of LBR and LHO (1:1 ratio) applied at a 1.0 × 10⁵ cfu/g of fresh forage (MIX). About 3 kg of forage from each treatment was ensiled into a 20 L mini-bucket silo in quadruplicate for 100 days. After silo opening, silage was collected for analyses of chemical compositions, in vitro nutrient digestibilities, fermentation characteristics, and microbial enumerations. The CON silage had the highest concentrations of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber (p = 0.006; p = 0.008) and a lowest in vitro DM digestibility (p < 0.001). The pH was highest in CON silage, while lowest in LBR and MIX silages (p < 0.001). The concentrations of ammonia-N, lactate, and acetate were highest in LBR silage (p = 0.008; p < 0.001; p < 0.001). Propionate and butyrate concentrations were highest in CON silage (p = 0.004; p < 0.001). The LAB and yeast counts were higher in CON and LHO silages compare to LBR and MIX silages (p < 0.001). However, the mold did not detect in all treatments. Therefore, this study could conclude that L. brevis 100D8 and Leu. holzapfelii strain 5H4 can improve the digestibility and anti-fungal activity of high moisture rye silage.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.38-51
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• 2022

Whole-plant corn (Zea may L.) and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] are major summer crops that can be fed as direct-cut or silage. Proso millet is a short-season growing crop with distinct agronomic characteristics that can be productive in marginal lands. However, information is limited about the potential production, feed value, and ensilability of proso millet forage. We evaluated proso millet as a silage crop in comparison with conventional silage crops. Proso millet was sown on June 8 and harvested on September 5 at soft-dough stage. Corn and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid were planted on May 10 and harvested on September 10 at the half milk-line and soft-dough stages, respectively. The fermentation was evaluated at 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 45 days after ensiling. Although forage yield of proso millet was lower than corn and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, its relative feed value was greater than sorghum-sudangrass hybrid. Concentrations of dry matter (DM), crude protein, and water-soluble carbohydrate decreased commonly in the ensiling forage crops. The DM loss was greater in proso millet than those in corn and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid. The in vitro dry matter digestibility declined in the forage crops as fermentation progressed. In the early stages of fermentation, pH dropped rapidly, which was stabilized in the later stages. Compared to corn and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, the concentration of ammonia-nitrogen was greater in proso millet. The count of lactic acid bacteria reached the maximum level on day 10, with the values of 6.96, 7.77, and 6.95 Log₁₀ CFU/g fresh weight for proso millet, corn, and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, respectively. As ensiling progressed, the concentrations of lactic acid and acetic acid of the three crops increased and lactic acid proportion became higher in the order of sorghum-sudangrass hybrid, corn, and proso millet. Overall, the shorter, fast-growing proso millet comparing with corn and sorghum-sudangrass hybrid makes this forage crop an alternative option, particularly in areas where agricultural inputs are limited. However, additional research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of viable strategies such as chemical additives or microbial inoculants to minimize ammonia-nitrogen formation and DM loss during ensiling.